(Reuters) -Some senior Tesla (TSLA) senior leaders were worried last year when Elon Musk denied Reuters that the company had killed a planned brand new 25,000 EVs that investors expected to stimulate the growth of explosive vehicles, according to people known.
Reuters is lying, Musk had published on X, minutes after the story was published on April 5, 2024, stopping a 6% decrease in Tesla shares. Tesla’s shares recovered some of the loss after Musk’s post, but the shares decreased by 3.6% with Market Close.
The leaders knew that Musk had actually canceled a low -cost vehicle, which many investors called Model 2, and turned Tesla to focus on the self -governing robotaxis, people said. The company had told the employees that the project was over weeks earlier, Reuters reported, citing three sources and company documents.
Musk’s post was so confusing to some senior managers that they asked him if he had changed his mind. Musk rejected their worries and said the project was still dead, according to people with knowledge on the matter.
The concerns of executives, who have not been reported before, shed light on the struggle of the company to provide low-cost, Mass-Market EV, considers it a basic promise of the company.
Some other Tesla leaders were carefree about Musk’s X Post, people familiar with the question said. The car manufacturer maintains his products of the products flexible, one person said to meet market conditions.
A year later, struggling with dating down and falling sales around the world, Tesla has not yet released the low-cost EV, which Musk once called the main one for the future of the company. Neither Musk nor Tesla has explicitly confirmed the murder of an entirely new model that Tesla’s investors and enthusiasts have long called Model 2, as it will be put under the current cheapest model in Tesla, 42 500 dollars 3.
On Wednesday, Musk announced that he was leaving his role as a special adviser to US President Donald Trump to return his focus to his companies, including Tesla, SpaceX, XAI, Neuralink and the Social Media Company X.
Tesla and Musk did not respond to requests for comment.
Weeks after Musk’s post on X, Tesla publishes an investor update, which guarantees that Tesla is still planning “new vehicles, including more accessible models” that will be built on current production lines.
Musk and Tesla had previously said that the planned $ 25,000 EV would be a brand new model designed and built from scratch on a new platform. Musk had declared the project as a test for innovative production innovation that would reduce the price of electric vehicles.
But instead of a whole new model, Tesla works on deprived of the Model 3 and Model Y Compact SUV sedan, Reuters reported in April. No pricing of these models and cars, which should be deployed in the first half of 2025, are delayed.
With the call for Tesla’s profit in April, the Chief of Engineering Lars Moravi said that accessible models would “look like shape and shape the cars we are already making.”
“The key is that they will be available,” he added, “and you will be able to buy one.”
After Musk denied Reuters’ report on the murder of Model 2, the leaders questioned Musk about what the company should tell the perverted suppliers and investors, people familiar with the question said.
Some leaders have told the associates that the refusal makes no sense – investors and the public will inevitably learn the truth – and is worried that it will harm Tesla sales as buyers slow down purchases to wait for Tesla $ 25,000 that he has actually decided not to build.
Their concerns were not commonly shared in the company. One of the sources familiar with Musk’s internal discussions, told Reuters that Tesla has considered various strategies for the production of cheap EVS over the years.
Investment Forum in Saudi Yuz, in Riyadh
Gary Black, an investor of Tesla, who manages money for Future Fund LLC, said he did not view Musk’s statement as a “denial” at that time, noting that Musk often made “short and harsh” comments that “can refer to anything.”
This said that Black told Reuters that he had recently sold his $ 1.2 million fund on Tesla, partly with concern that the new vehicle at affordable prices would be a “stripped model Y” rather than a “differentiated product”.
Some Tesla leaders have told associates that they worry that the denial of Model 2 is dead, can land Musk in hot water with the securities committee and exchanges to mislead investors for a future product line that has been baked in their forecasts for the company.
Previously, Musk paid an agreement of $ 40 million in 2018 because of another social media publication, which the agency claims to have misled investors Musk plans to take Tesla Private.
Reuters could not determine whether executives approached Musk directly with the concern of SEC application, nor whether they had signaled the SEC himself.
The SEC spokesman declined to comment.
Musk’s agreement with SEC requires him to have publications on his social media on certain aspects of Tesla, such as new business lines and forecasts for the company, first checked by a lawyer.
Musk despises the agreement, according to people familiar with his thinking, and told associates that he did not publish anything that needed a lawyer’s approval.
On the same day that Musk denied Reuters’ report, he again raised Tesla shares in trade after hours with a publication called “Robotaxi Unveil 8/8” for August 8, a plan that had not announced widely to Tesla employees, said people known on the question. The Cybercab Hollywood -style debut with two doors eventually slowed down until October and undermined investors.
Many investors have long gone up with hope for a transformation $ 25,000 EV, which will point out sales. Instead, Tesla reported its first annual decline in vehicle sales in 2024, and sales dropped by 13% in the first quarter of 2025 against the backdrop of increasing competition and public protests against Musk’s work in the Trump administration.
In April, Chinese carmaker BYD ahead of Tesla in Europe for the first time and took the global lead in affordable EVS. The Electric Hatchback of the Bay Seagull on BYD costs less than $ 10,000 in China and sells competitively for more than double this price in export markets.
(Rachael Levy reporting. Edit by Brian Tevent and Michael Lormont)
